I just got some awesome news. I won an all expenses paid scholarship to go to Illuxcon this year. I am so excited about it. For those of you who don't know Illuxcon is a convention for fantasy illustration. So many great artists will be there like; Justin Sweet, Daren Bader, Dan Dos Santos, and even Donato. And that is just a very small amount.

The final image in my Beowulf series entitled The End of a Legend. This one depicts the final battle between Beowulf and the dragon. Unlike his previous battles this one takes place years later after Beowulf is made king. A dragon begins to terrify Beowulf's land setting fire to all he sees. Beowulf with a group of thanes then faces off against the dragon. When the battle begins all of Beowulf's men except for Wiglaf abandon him. At the end of the fight Beowulf and the dragon both lie dead and Wiglaf sees to him. Wiglaf being Beowulf's only relative becomes the next king.

To contrast with my other pieces I wanted this one to depict the end of the battle, the aftermath of the carnage. I thought a nice way to show this was through the use of an above view so we could see the crows looking down upon the feast before them. I thought this quite appropriate as crows are very symbolic of death.

With the design of the dragon I wanted to keep with the same mammalian and aquatic fusion that Grendel and his mother had. I decided to give him a mane down his whole neck. I figured that any creature who lives in such a cold environment would need to have some form of warmth. He has the similar fin nature to his ear that Grendel and his mother does, but the main aquatic feature I gave him was to base his design off an eel.

I was really proud of how this piece turned out, I hope all of you enjoy it as well.

Finally got to see How to Train You Dragon last night, and frankly it was amazing. I loved the story, the characters, the animation, the style, the music; I loved it all. It is definitely going on the DVD list. The best part though was that it was inspiring. I was currently fighting with some ideas on my Beowulf project, and all the issues I was wondering about, the movie helped me solve. So now I feel re-energized and ready to paint.

Also I am finished with the drawings to my Beowulf pieces and I am deep in the paintings. I do not really have the time to upload them all now but in a week or so expect to see a lot.

Here is some WIP for my upcoming Beowulf project. Each image represents a battle Beowulf has. First the battle with Grendel, then Grendel's mother, and finally the dragon. I have some color studies in the work as well and will post those soon.

Also later today is the big photo shoot for this project. Perhaps I will show some of the shots as well.